PRETORIA (Reuters) - South African Olympic and Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius appeared in court on Tuesday to apply for bail following his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius, known as "Blade Runner" because of the carbon fiber prosthetic blades he used to race, faces a minimum 15-year jail sentence.

The Supreme Court last Thursday upgraded the 29-year-old athlete's sentence to murder from "culpable homicide", South Africa's equivalent of manslaughter, for which he had received a five-year sentence.

Pistorius was released from jail on Oct. 19 and had been meant to serve the rest of that five-year sentence under house arrest at his uncle's house in a wealthy suburb of the capital Pretoria.